Writing: Teachers & Students

Lesson 1: Getting Started

Warm-Ups

Free Write

This simple warm-up will help get you started. To Free Writing, settle down with a paper and pencil and just write for a one or two minutes. You can write about anything you want, even if you think is isn't making sense.

In fact - don't think - just write whatever comes into your mind, just to get the feeling of writing. And don't stop - just keep that pencil on the paper and write.

If you think you have nothing to write about, just write "I don't know what to write about..." over and over until another idea comes to mind.

The important thing is to keep your pencil on the paper and write. Don't worry about actually telling a story.

You may want to have a parent keep track of the time for you - start with just one minute, but you can Free Write for longer periods of time if you want.

Are you ready to give it a try? Okay - get you paper and pencil and begin!

Once you've done some Free Writes, here's another warm-up for you to try.

Quick Write

A Quick Write is much like a Free Write, except this time choose a topic to write about. You might choose to write about a character in a story you are reading, or about something you're learning in school, or about what you had for breakfast. Whatever you choose, just write about it for a minute or two.

And again - don't worry about your writing being perfect - what you are doing here is just getting your mind and your hand working as one!

These warm-ups can be done before you start any writing assignment, and they can be done at any point in the writing process if you are feeling stuck or having a hard time actually writing. Just take a moment and Free Write or Quick Write.

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